One of the Better TV Channels on History

For the last few days, I have become something of a couch potato history buff, enjoying some good TV shows about various topics. My chief source has been The Military Channel, which has recently become one of my favorite channels. Yesterday they featured shows about famous tank battles. I was especially interested in the Battle of Kursk in July, 1943 during World War II. Taking place on the plains of south-central Russia and pitting Nazi Germany against the Soviets under Stalin, this was easily the largest tank battle in history, hopefully something that will never be surpassed. And today they had a show detailing the extraordinary Doolittle Raid on Japan by the U.S. in April, 1942.

I wish I could rely on The History Channel and History Channel International (recently renamed "H2") for history programming, but they have long lost their primary vision, resorting now to more "present reality" based shows or programming about spurious topics like ancient astronauts. Still, from time to time they'll come up with something pertinent.

I hadn't expected anything historic on the Sci-Fi Channel, but the other day they showed a dramatized movie about the life for true historical figure Prince Vlad of Romania, who was the basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula character. These dramatized movies bother me, though, for I often have difficulty sorting out fact from fiction in them.

All in all, though, The Military Channel is, in my opinion, by far the best choice from programming about history. Hopefully, they will stay focused and not stray as did other channels, for their shows are quite informative and interesting. On the other hand, even this channel is showing some ominous signs of "decay": tonight they featured shows about UFO sightings, Area 51, and "Nazi UFO's"...